April 29, 2010, New York, NY — Gary Johnson, former Governor of New Mexico and Honorary Chairman of the OUR America Initiative, stated today that immigration reform needs to focus on making work visas more accessible and ending crime along our borders. “I understand the frustration in Arizona. I experienced the same type of concerns in New Mexico when I was Governor, but racial profiling is not the answer,” Governor Johnson stated, in reference to the recently passed Arizona law that authorizes law enforcement to stop suspected illegal immigrants and demand proof of legal status. “I vetoed over 750 bills as Governor of New Mexico, and I would absolutely have vetoed this bill if it came across my desk.”

Governor Johnson believes that the increase in crime along the borders is not due to illegal immigration, but to strict drug prohibition laws that provide increased leverage and power to Mexican drug cartels. “The problem is that the federal government is not able to do its job, because the current laws are just not enforceable. I respect Arizona taking action, and I believe strongly in States’ rights. But this law is just not well grounded. We need to implement an immigration policy that allows for better documentation and more easily obtainable permits for temporary guest workers to fill jobs that are available.” Johnson said. “In addition to citizens being stripped of their rights and subjected to unfair searches, this law is ultimately unfair to law enforcement, who will be left to implement a law that although well intended, is misguided in its attempt to reduce border crime, and is bound to have undesirable consequences.”

Governor Johnson has previously called for an end to marijuana prohibition, pointing out that we are not winning the war on drugs, and that billions of dollars are being wasted in fighting the Mexican drug carters along America’s borders. Studies show that prohibition of marijuana costs American taxpayers approximately $42 billion per year in law enforcement costs, as well as lost tax revenues. In addition, Mexican drug cartels continue to reap huge profits from the prohibition of marijuana – with up to 70% of their total profits based on marijuana sales in the United States.

Governor Johnson is available for interviews, or to contribute content as a subject matter expert on legalization and immigration policy. Please contact Sue Winchester at 801.303.7924 or media@ouramericainitiative.com for further information.

April 20, 2010, Santa Fe, NM —Gary Johnson, former Governor of New Mexico and Honorary Chairman of the OUR America Initiative, today announced his continued support for marijuana legalization. Governor Johnson points out that we are not winning the war on drugs. Billions of dollars are being wasted and the result is higher crime rates. Marijuana legalization is an effective means to reduce the exorbitant costs currently spent fighting the War on Drugs; as well as providing the ability to generate a new revenue stream for state budgets through taxation of marijuana.

“It is time we cut the crime rate in this country,” said Johnson. “The current prohibition laws are forcing drug disputes to be played out with guns in our streets. We need to put a stop to this criminal drug element in our country.” Johnson went on to say that current drug laws produce detrimental consequences in Mexico and other Central and South American countries. “If it were not for the prohibition laws in this country, the drug cartels would not be in business.”

Studies show that prohibition of marijuana costs American taxpayers approximately $42 billion per year in law enforcement costs, as well as lost tax revenues. In addition, Mexican drug cartels continue to reap huge profits from the prohibition of marijuana – with up to 70% of their total profits based on marijuana sales in the United States.

Governor Johnson is a longtime, credible advocate of legalization; officially stating his position on the issue during his second term in office as Governor of New Mexico. As such, he is the highest-ranking elected official to ever offer public support on the issue. “This country would be a better place to live if all the resources we currently put towards criminalizing marijuana were instead spent by law enforcement on protection from real crime, as opposed to victimless crime,” stated Johnson. “My opinion in regards to marijuana is that we should tax it, regulate it, and control it. I want to make it clear that I don’t advocate recreational drug use of any kind. Obviously, it will never be legal to smoke pot, become impaired, and get behind the wheel of car or do harm to others. It will never become legal for kids to smoke pot.”

As honorary chairman of the OUR America Initiative, Governor Johnson has traveled to fourteen states in the last three months talking about the important issues of the day. In addition to discussing his support of legalization, he has encouraged public dialogue on lowering taxes, reductions in deficit spending, and a return to common sense governing. “One of the things I’m most excited about is seeing the issue of marijuana legalization moving towards the forefront of our political dialogue. The public is become more aware of the wasteful expenditures and drain on our law enforcement resources that marijuana prohibition has caused,” Johnson stated.

Governor Johnson is available for interviews, or to contribute content as a subject matter expert on legalization. Please contact Sue Winchester at 801.303.7924 or media@ouramericainitiative.com for further information.

April 15, 2010, Santa Fe, NM — Gary Johnson, former Governor of New Mexico and Honorary Chairman of the OUR America Initiative, today announced his upcoming visit to New York City, as part of his road tour of America. Governor Johnson will speak at several political events and fundraisers in New York, from April 26th – 29th, to be followed by speaking engagements in Washington DC, Maryland and Virginia. Governor Johnson will continue to focus on lowering taxes, reducing deficits, the impact of health care reform, and arguments for the legalization of marijuana.

Recently, Governor Johnson has been a featured speaker at several high profile Tea Party events in Fresno, Tempe and South Carolina, each with audiences of several thousand people. Additionally, he has conducted productive visits to New Hampshire, Washington, DC, Michigan, Orange County and Missouri, in the past several months.

Governor Johnson has garnered significant national press and media attention since the launch of OUR America in early December, “I’m looking forward to continuing the message of lower taxes common sense government and reductions in deficit spending,” stated Johnson. “The message of OUR America is clearly resonating with the public; I’m extremely encouraged as I encounter people from around the country – from every walk of life – who are eager for a return to common-sense policy and governing.”

Governor Johnson will be available for media interviews throughout his New York trip.
Please contact Sue Winchester at media@ouramericainitiative.com or 801.303.7924 to schedule an interview.

On Tuesday, February 9, in the midst of one of the biggest snowstorms in recent Washington, D.C. memory, former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson and Harvard economist (and Reason contributor) Jeff Miron talked about economic revitalitization and Johnson’s views on immigration, war, and other issues at the heart of the new organization Our America.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke gave his semi-annual testimony to Congress on monetary policy Wednesday. While cautioning lawmakers that job numbers are still a concern, Bernanke indicated that because of measures taken by the government and the Fed, we are in the process of economic recovery. But can Americans trust Bernanke’s testimony?

Economic and monetary policy “luminaries” like Ben Bernanke, Alan Greenspan, Hank Paulson, and Tim Geithner- along with the rest of America- were blindsided by the financial meltdown, credit crunch, housing bust, and subsequent recession. These are all “really, really smart” guys who “know what they’re talking about” and understand all of the complicated intricacies of economics, which are all but ineffable to the layman. But they got it wrong just like everyone else.

Can we trust someone to predict our recovery from this economic crisis, who didn’t even see the crisis coming? Instead, we should listen to the (very) few analysts who predicted the economic collapse with frightening accuracy. What they all had in common was their adherence to a school of economic thought called Austrian economics, because it originated with several Austrian economists like Ludwig von Mises and F. A. Hayek.

What the Austrian economists said was actually very simple: that you have to produce something before you can consume it. Who could disagree with such an obvious statement? In other words, it is production that drives economic growth. And in order to produce, you have to save. An economy has to produce more than it consumes, and invest the surplus in more production in order to grow. Growth is driven by investment, and investment must be driven by savings, which comes from a surplus of production.

But most economists today (like all the ones that missed the economic crisis, but presume to accurately forecast our recovery from it), are not Austrians. They are Keynesians- the school of economic thought named after the economist, John Maynard Keynes (pronounced “canes”). They don’t believe that production drives the economy. Oddly enough, they think that consumption does. They believe that a central bank like the Federal Reserve is necessary to drive consumer spending by making it easy to get credit. The Fed does this by keeping interest rates (which is simply how much it costs to borrow money) artificially low.

Remember, that Austrian economists believe that growth is driven by investment, and that investment must be driven by savings. Keynesian economists think that investments should be driven by credit. But when we make credit too cheap by holding interest rates low, we fuel unwise investments and runaway speculation. We also artificially stimulate demand for consumer goods like houses, which artificially drives up their prices, so that people think they are great investments. But those prices can’t go up forever. They are only stimulated by a false demand, which is in turn stimulated by an easy credit policy that will eventually have to come to an end. And that’s exactly what happened to the US economy.

So what do the Austrian economists with all their new-found credibility as accurate economic forecasters have to say about our recovery? They agree with Governor Gary Johnson, that our economy is still on shaky ground and might very well experience hyper-inflation- a crowded market of dollars that pushes up the prices of consumer goods, making everything that people like you and me buy- groceries, gas, electricity, etc. -a LOT more expensive. How can our government fix this?

To begin with, we need more oversight of the Federal Reserve. Transparency will help Americans to understand where their money is going and why our dollar is losing so much of its value. The government should also cut deficits and balance its budget. Instead of endless new spending, programs, pork, and bailouts, it’s time for our government to get smart and practice some fiscal responsibility. As any good Austrian economist would say, we cannot keep spending money that we don’t have. Only a Keynesian could disagree.

One important question for our era is: How do we create clean, affordable, renewable energy? It would seem that Silicon Valley engineer, K.R. Sridhar has found an answer to that question, the Bloom Box. With its dazzling premiere on 60 minutes Sunday evening, the Bloom Box is making a big splash on the Internet as the next best solution to our energy needs. It’s a small fuel cell that produces a lot of energy, allowing its users to unplug from the power grid and cheaply generate energy themselves.

CBS News reports that it has already been quietly purchased and tested by several companies in California, including Google, FedEx, and eBay- which claims to have saved $100,000 in energy costs in just a few months after powering 15% of their main campus’ energy needs with the Bloom Box. Whether the Bloom Box lives up to the hype or not, one thing remains clear: that private entrepreneurship will solve our energy problems and keep our land, air, and water clean. Small business, not big government, is the solution.

Directives from a climate conference in Copenhagen may have an only marginal impact on global CO2 emissions (especially if some developing countries don’t comply), but they would have a tremendous impact on the daily lives of people like you and me. By raising the costs of energy as much as 25% cap and trade schemes would cripple the American economy and break the budgets of families that are already struggling to make ends meet. What do we say to the poor elderly couple in Iowa who would have to choose between food and heat during a deadly cold winter?

Innovators like K.R. Sridhar and his company, Bloom Energy, offer a better alternative. Instead of limiting our environmental impact in a way that hurts the finances of American households and businesses, energy entrepreneurs seek to limit our environmental impact by creating value for Americans. The beauty of energy efficiency is that it needs no directive from a government central planner, because energy efficiency is cost efficiency, and Americans already have an incentive to cut costs. In the end, it will be people like you and me who want to save money in our homes and small businesses that will drive a true and lasting revolution in energy efficiency and sustainability.

The best thing the government can do to ensure this happens, is to not stand in its way. Lower taxes, less spending, fewer strangling regulations, an end to all the credit-hogging by the US Treasury, and other business-friendly policies will make sure the American economy is strong and awash with the capital and credit it needs to fuel entrepreneurship, while breaking down the barriers that keep new entrepreneurs from getting off the ground.

February 9, 2010, Washington, D.C. —Gary Johnson, former Governor of New Mexico and Honorary Chairman of the OUR America Initiative, today issued his “Three Point Plan for Economic Prosperity” during a special press event in Washington, D.C., hosted by the Reason Foundation. Governor Johnson worked with top national economists from around the country to develop the plan, detailed below:
GARY JOHNSON’S THREE POINT PLAN

FOR ECONOMIC PROSPERITY
Free markets and limited government are the foundation of prosperity. Economic policy should foster entrepreneurship, innovation, and individual choice, not direct economic activity to satisfy political interests in Washington. Americans should be free to make their own economic decisions because individuals, not government, know what is best for themselves and their families. This freedom unleashes the creativity and enterprising spirit that fuels economic opportunity and an equal playing field for all Americans.
To achieve these goals, the U.S. must adopt three approaches:
1) SLASH EXPENDITURES: Excess spending is rampant in the U.S. budget, producing an unsustainable path for federal debt. The U.S. must restrain spending across the board:

Scale back entitlement programs such as Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security, which threaten to bankrupt the nation’s future.
Eliminate the costly and ineffective military interventions in Iraq and Afghanistan; target defense spending to actions that truly protect the United States.
Stop spending on the fiscal stimulus.
Reduce subsidies for agriculture, transportation, energy, housing, and all other special interests.

2) CUT TAXES: The U.S. tax system imposes an enormous toll on productivity through high marginal rates, absurd complexity, loopholes for the well connected, and incentives for wasteful decisions. The government must lower the tax burden to stimulate the economy. This means:
Eliminate punitive taxation of savings and investment.
Simplify the tax code; stop using it to reward special interests and control behavior.
Adopt a flat tax on income or consumption.

3) SHRINK FEDERAL INVOLVEMENT IN THE ECONOMY: Much federal intervention is a payout to special interests or counterproductive meddling that stifles competition, innovation, and growth. We should:

Reject auto and banking bailouts, state bailouts, corporate welfare, cap-and-trade, card check, and the mountain of regulation that protects special interest rather than benefiting consumers or the economy.
Restrict Federal Reserve policy to maintaining price stability, not bailing out financial firms or propping up the housing sector.
Eliminate government support of Fannie and Freddie.
Reduce or eliminate federal involvement in education; let states expand successful reforms such as vouchers and charter schools.
Legalize, tax, and regulate marijuana; emphasize harm reduction for other drugs.
Expand free trade and legal immigration.

# # # #

The OUR America Initiative is a national issue based advocacy committee. Key issues include: Solving the Economic Crisis and Creating Jobs; Lowering the Federal Deficit; Civil Liberties; Fighting the War on Drugs; Immigration Policy; and Taxes. Additional information regarding the committee’s position on these issues can be found at www.ouramericainitiative.com.

For information regarding OUR America, or to schedule an interview with Gary Johnson, please contact Sue Winchester at 801-303-7924 or via email at media@ouramericainitiative.com.